Educating Mason
May 16th, 2008 | By Chuck | Category: Proud PapaOur 3 year old, Lil A, was the first between my wife and I. As a result she got babied quite a bit and never really spent much time away from one or the other of us.
She was the kid that didn’t do well when being left with strangers, or other family members, early on. It was entirely our fault, I know, but we enjoyed keeping her all to ourselves knowing too well that they grow up so fast.
When the time came to enroll her in a daycare/pre-school, around her third birthday, we were a bit concerned with how it would go.
Lil A surprised us by doing remarkably well. There was never an issue.
Not until she encountered Mason that is.
We first heard of Mason during dinner time.
- “Mason hit me today.”
- “Mason was not very nice to me.”
- “Mason wouldn’t let me play with my toy.”
We explained to Lil A that she should tell Mason that she wasn’t very happy with the way he was treating her, and if things got really bad she should tell the teacher.
Several weeks went by and we didn’t hear much more about Mason outside of the mention of his name. No scandalous events.
Upon picking Lil A up from pre-school one day the teacher asked my wife what we had told Lil A about how to handle Mason. My wife shared our pearl of wisdom and the teacher smiled saying that Lil A had been doing just that for a few weeks now. She had apparently received such good results from Mason on her own that she began policing Mason for the other kids as well. Eventually he wasn’t get away with very much.
We did make sure that our little girl hadn’t become the bully and the teacher assured us that was not the case.
It turns out that educating Mason didn’t take much more than a strong willed little girl. Let’s hope the lesson stays learned.
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What a great plan!! And a sweet little girl.
Thanks Karen. It did work really well, but all the credit goes to her. Thanks for stopping by. We miss seeing you around here.
I worry about this stuff with our kids too. I want them to stand up for themselves in a positive and effective manner. We may need to send them over to your house because my advice of setting up the ropes and having a cage match might not fly with the daycare center
Hi Jeremy - It is a tough thing to prepare yourself for. The cage match may not be a bad idea, unfortunately it would only be a matter of time before the kids were exploited in the next reality TV show.
Aww, Chuck. That’s great! My middle one is a bully magnet, and he totally buddies up to them to try & save his butt. He’s the clown of the group, you know? And it Drives Me Nuts. I am glad your girl has a MUCH better approach.
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Ah! but… can you teach that when you were never taught it yourself?
Some people were never taught to defend themselves, and instead were forced to fight their playground & life bullies with sarcasm & wit (speaking of no one in particular here…)
Is it possible to teach a kid something your don’t know how to do yourself?
Nice job, nice piece.
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Yes, I think it is. No one taught me how to be a dad and I haven’t lost any yet.
I don’t want to discount your great advice to Lil A, but her success may have more to do with the big stick that she’s holding in her hand!
Hey Pat! The stick was plan B. Thankfully she never had to resort to it.
Wonderfully handled. Spot on. I have nothing more to add other than the promise that should Michael encounter a bully at school, we’ll apply this strategy first. Lord knows I can’t teach him to box.
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Nice, the class bully. I prefer the term–enforcer.
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even an enforcer needs a good kick in the arse now and again
I struggle with teaching my oldest how to stand up for himself. And I say struggle because my husband is not around 98% of the time for the life lessons because of his job so I am left with trying to teach all the morals and doing the right thing. I really enjoyed this, and even though it was a simple quick read it made a point that encouraging your kids to stick up for themselves wil carry more weight then you will ever know.
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That has to be tough Kim. I’m sure you are doing a smashing job though. It is hard sending them out with advice knowing it just might not work. We were happy this wasn’t one of those times.
Ya’ll are talking about a future diplomat, humanitarian, and even possibly the President of the United States. And she’s my NIECE!!!! She is so awesome!!!!!
How great is that! Little girls need to learn to stand up for themselves, how to be assertive without being aggressive. With our daughter it was “Tyler” in pre-school. Now as a college sophomore she doesn’t take crap off anyone and is still preceived as a sweet girl.
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